Liberty's Exiles: American Loyalists in the Revolutionary World

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Liberty's Exiles: American Loyalists in the Revolutionary World

3.87 of 5 stars 3.87 · rating details · 135 ratings · 38 reviews

NATIONAL BOOK CRITICS CIRCLE AWARD WINNER

This groundbreaking book offers the first global history of the loyalist exodus to Canada, the Caribbean, Sierra Leone, India, and beyond.

At the end of the American Revolution, sixty thousand Americans loyal to the British cause fled the United States and became refugees throughout the British Empire. Liberty’s Exiles tells their s...more

Paperback, 480 pages

Published March 6th 2012 by Vintage (first published January 27th 2011)

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Feb 24, 2011 Anastasia Fitzgerald-Beaumont rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

The American War of Independence conjures up so many heroic images and so many myths, anything from Paul Revere’s Ride to the winter at Valley Forge; from the gallant Minute Men to the ferocious ‘Hessians’, the mercenary army of a ‘tyrant’ king.

Have you ever considered what happened to the losers, those who fought on the ‘wrong side’? I’m not thinking here of those dreaded Hessians! No, the people I have in mind were the colonists who remained loyal to the crown, loosely grouped by the Patriots...more

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May 10, 2013 Vic rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Although an avid history book reader I usually avoid histories of the War of Independence for the same reason that I avoid programmes about World War II on the History Channel..how many times can you tell this story. However I was intrigued by this account of the Loyalists. I think perhaps the author overstates the contribution the Loyalists made to the Empire. Some of the developments she attributes to Loyalist influence I suspect were really the lessons Britain learnt from the war. i.e. it had...more

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Apr 16, 2013 Mitchell rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I don't think anyone can say that they really know the American Revolution without having read this excellent account of "the other side". Jasanoff paints a much more complicated and nuanced picture of the loyalists then we usually learn (assuming we paid any attention to the loyalists). They were a very diverse group both in terms of class and race. Some things this book really opened my eyes on -- who was an American and a British citizen in early American days was a serious issue. People chan...more I don't think anyone can say that they really know the American Revolution without having read this excellent account of "the other side". Jasanoff paints a much more complicated and nuanced picture of the loyalists then we usually learn (assuming we paid any attention to the loyalists). They were a very diverse group both in terms of class and race. Some things this book really opened my eyes on -- who was an American and a British citizen in early American days was a serious issue. People changed sides and even some Loyalists returned to America after the war. Some families wound-up divided during the War of 1812. Even more interesting was that some Loyalists continued to own land in America after the war. I would never imagined that many of the "British" who conquered India and Nepal were born and raised in Boston and New York. Nor did I know that a small scale civil war between "patriots" and "loyalists" continued for a couple years after the surrender at Yorktown.

One other thing that was of interest to me is how much the events of the American Revolution and its aftermath resemble events today. The Loyalists were one of the largest refugee populations the world had known up to that time. The evacuation of New York was a long logistical nightmare that was the biggest of its sort at the time. The British military occupied New York, Savannah, and Charleston for years after the war ended creating political complications for the early republic. Promises were made by the Crown and broken on a whim. The Loyalist Compensation Commission in London proved to be an inept bureaucratic failure. All the while assorted fanatics schemed to take back America.

I do think that Jasanoff stretches a pet theory of hers -- that the Loyalists would shape the path of the British Empire as well as Britain itself. That may have been true of the countries she examined, certainly of Canada, but I don't think she proves it solidly. Still, it is an interesting thought.(less)

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Sep 26, 2012 Louise rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: us-history, british-bio-hist, us-revolution, natl-book-critics-circle-award

The "other side" of the American Revolution's story is almost never mentioned in the US. As a reader of history, I was aware of the exodus from NYC and as a native of Western NY, I knew about land grants in Canada to loyalists; however, I had never heard of the "Spirit of 1783", or considered the rights and liberties that might be available through the British model at the time, nor knew that the burning for the US capitol in the War of 1812 was in response to US looting and the burning Upper Ca...more The "other side" of the American Revolution's story is almost never mentioned in the US. As a reader of history, I was aware of the exodus from NYC and as a native of Western NY, I knew about land grants in Canada to loyalists; however, I had never heard of the "Spirit of 1783", or considered the rights and liberties that might be available through the British model at the time, nor knew that the burning for the US capitol in the War of 1812 was in response to US looting and the burning Upper Canada's parliament. This is the very short list of facts and sentiments that were new to me.

Maya Jasanoff begins by describing the plight of the Loyalists during the Revolution. US literature covers the treatment of settlers, POWs and patriots at the hands of the British, but this was my first encounter with what would be considered today as war crimes committed by the US patriots. Jasanoff also writes how families were passionately divided, including the famous rift in the Benjamin Franklin family. Through these descriptions, you see the trauma of the Loyalists before their exodus ordeal even began.

Jasanoff presents England's surrender as a strategic retreat. England had more lucrative and enticing ventures than the American colonies (India, Australia and the Caribbean to name a few). England expected that when independent, the American colonies would eventually have to fight France rather than continue its military alliance against England. England expected, in the long run, the colonies would see the advantages of re-uniting with the growing Empire with which they shared a culture and language. Caught in this withdrawl were those who remained loyal to Britain.

This book, while heavily reliant on dry crusty records, is full of compelling human interest stories. The Loyalists were shown to be from all walks of life and represented in all social groups. For many Loyalists, there was no choice, they had to emigrate. Their future in the US was bleak. The threat of violence was everywhere. Many had their property confiscated.

The author tells the story through the exiles themselves such as Elizabeth Johnson (exiled back to Britain, to Jamaica and finally Nova Scotia); David George (a slave who joined the British Army for the promise of service for freedom); the Beverly Robinson Family (whose connections helped them obtain positions in the growing British Empire); the colorful saga of William Bowles (who attempted to create a British-Cherokee state); Thomas Brown (tortured by the Patriots and went to British Florida only to be exiled again as Britain ceded it to Spain); Joseph and Elizabeth Brandt (who led the Mohawk tribes to Canada); and John Clarkson, (the abolitionist who led Black Loyalists from their Nova Scotia exile to a new exile in Sierra Leone.) to name a few. There are cameos for the family of Benedict Arnold, a former slave of George Washington, the Loyalists in the Benjamin Franklin family and many others.

This is not just a recount of personal ordeals. It is a story of ideals as well. Both sides had the rhetoric of rights for all. The Loyalists felt that theirs was the more humanitarian system, the one that best guaranteed individual rights. The narrative shows that both sides easily compromised away minority rights in policies, treaties and lack of protection.

This book presents from a tremendous amount of research from an informed perspective. I highly recommend it to those interested in this period. (less)

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Apr 26, 2012 Renee rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I really enjoyed this book. Not only the interesting and NOT taught perspective, aspect of our own American/Colonial history but Ms. Jasanoff's writing style is very easy to read. American History is so complicated and so amazing, yet it is too often only portrayed in loud, patriotic, glorious terms; with the nasty underbelly of what took place at the human level glossed over. The violence against ordinary citizens who were or Loyal to the King or in some cases politically neutral was horrific....more

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Apr 28, 2013 Caroline rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: american-history, british-history

American legends would have you believe the American Revolution was a relatively civilised affair, a unanimous uprising from the oppressed and downtrodden colonists against a tyrannical king and unrepresentative parliament. The truth, as with anything, is very different. It was more akin to a civil war; indeed, at the time it was described as such, rather than revolution, with families split asunder, neighbours turning against one another, this man a revolutionary, that man a loyalist.

This book...more American legends would have you believe the American Revolution was a relatively civilised affair, a unanimous uprising from the oppressed and downtrodden colonists against a tyrannical king and unrepresentative parliament. The truth, as with anything, is very different. It was more akin to a civil war; indeed, at the time it was described as such, rather than revolution, with families split asunder, neighbours turning against one another, this man a revolutionary, that man a loyalist.

This book explores the stories of those who did not 'fight for freedom', who remained loyal to King and Country and paid for it by losing everything but their lives, evacuating from America with the departing troops in fear of 'patriot' reprisals. The British government of the time offered free land grants and compensation for losses to any who chose to leave America, a fairly radical and humanitarian offer for the time, especially since it extended to those other, often-neglected participants of the Revolution, the British' Mohawk and Creek allies, and the free blacks and ex-slaves who had been offered freedom in exchange for fighting for the Crown.

The loss of the American colonies had a remarkable effect on the British Empire itself, setting it on a path of empire-building in Asia, Africa and Australia to compensate for the loss, aided in no small part by those same loyalists. They spread out in a diaspora across the British Empire, from Nova Scotia in what was then known as British North America, to Jamaica and the Bahamas, to the new black colony of Freetown in Sierra Leone, and eventually to the British Empire's newest jewel in the Crown, India. There they had a remarkable influence on the evolution of those colonies, often setting the tone for the countries we know today. They brought with them a legacy from the Revolution of protest and a desire for reform - just because they had remained loyal to the Crown did mean they did not earnestly desire and agitate for reform and for their rights as British citizens, just as had the American revolutionaries before they decided to fight for independence.

It's a fascinating story, tracing a really neglected area of history. The American Revolution was by no means unanimous; studies estimate that between a fifth and one third of all colonists at the time were loyalists, and over 60,000 fled after Yorktown and the signing of peace terms, some one fortieth of the entire population of the time. It's just a shame that it has taken so long for such a book as this to reach a mainstream, non-academic audience, to serve as an important counterpoint to all the myth that has built up around the American Revolution.(less)

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Jun 07, 2011 Matthew Linton rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: early-american-history, american-history, transnational

American Loyalism has become one of the hottest trends in Early American historical scholarship. Numerous monographs have sought to understand why certain Americans stayed loyal to the British and how that loyalty became the new foundation of the British Empire after the loss of the United States. One of the most fascinating examination of American Loyalists is Harvard historian Maya Jasanoff's Liberty's Exiles, which traces the Loyalist diaspora after the American Revolution and examines how th...more American Loyalism has become one of the hottest trends in Early American historical scholarship. Numerous monographs have sought to understand why certain Americans stayed loyal to the British and how that loyalty became the new foundation of the British Empire after the loss of the United States. One of the most fascinating examination of American Loyalists is Harvard historian Maya Jasanoff's Liberty's Exiles, which traces the Loyalist diaspora after the American Revolution and examines how they influenced and represented the reformed British Empire that would rebound from 1776 to become the world's super power. Jasanoff contrasts the stability of British subject-hood to the chaos of American citizenship as the most significant unifying factor across the spectrum of Loyalists which ranged from escaped slaves and Creek Indians to wealthy colonial officials and powerful Southern plantation owners.
The strengths of this book are numerous and profound. Jasanoff does a fantastic job probing the contradictions of the new British Empire, which pushed for slavery's abolition and accommodated Loyalist former slaves who fought against the Americans while integrating Loyalist slave owners and their slaves into Caribbean colonies like Jamaica. Another strength of the book is how Jasanoff situates the Loyalists within the fabric of a changing British Empire. Loyalists come to represent the "spirit of 1783" whereby British subject-hood was expanded to include new racial groups and white British colonial subjects were granted rights to representation and self-rule unseen before 1776. Finally, Jasanoff contributes new research while effectively synthesizing a global corpus of secondary sources into a cogent, and at times thrilling, narrative of dislocation and diaspora. Her work across four continents including archives in far-flung Sierra Leone and India give historians a more complete glimpse into the interactions between colonists, natives, and the apparatus of empire as the British expanded into Africa and Asia. Also, her work on Loyalist attempts to secure reparations for property lost during the American Revolution is original and presents historians with a new set of documents through which to understand the primary concerns of the Loyalists.
My one minor complaint about Liberty's Exiles is Jasanoff's tendency to overdramatize events by lapsing into flowery language. Her descriptions of the forests of Jamaica and barrenness of the Bahamas are simply too much and distract the reader from the characters that populate those locales. I would have liked a more tight, scholarly use of language where description was used to give the reader a sense of the terrain and not a tool to heighten the drama as Loyalists struggled to find a place in the British Empire.
Overall, a tremendous read that successfully attaches itself to current trends in scholarship, while building upon it and adding new perspectives to what it meant to be a Loyalist and how Loyalists came to represent the newly constituted British Empire after 1776. (less)

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Jul 12, 2011 Patrick Sprunger rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: read-in-2011, world-history

Most of the history dedicated to the American Revolution devotes a great deal of space to the speculative definition of the revolutionary generation. Less space is given to defining the loyalists. For the most part, loyalists are described passively as the vague inverse of the patriots* - people Maya Jasanoff calls "republicans" (with a small "r").** In Liberty's Exiles, the author proffers a much more affirmative definition of American loyalists as basically conservative British subjects who, f...more

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Jun 23, 2011 Mary rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: already-read-non-fiction

Who would have thought the stories of the loyalists after the American Revolution would be so fascinating. After studying US history for years, I had no idea of the nature of the conflict between loyalists and "patriots" during and after the war that affected so many. The author traces individual families and whole groups who left the new country to struggle in other British territories. Slaves who were given their freedom with the British still found discrimination in settling in Canada, the We...more

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Mar 12, 2013 Michael Foley rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

What happened to the Loyalist Americans following the war? Jasanoff uses all available materials to tell the story of their diaspora. Rich landowners, politicians, soldiers, and slaves found themselves thrust to all points the the British empire, including Canada, Jamaica, India, and Australia. Yet, they took with them the experiences and ideologies of the America they left behind. Although loyal to the Crown, they were not opposed to expressing their own sense of independence. In many ways, the...more

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Mar 10, 2011 Chris rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: hist-misc

If you're into non-traditional histories this will be your cup of tea. Absolutely fascinating and very different perspective of the Revolutionary War and the first generation afterwards. Reminded me of Bush's dictum "you are either for us or against us." The takeaway from this book is that the Revolutionary War really was our first civil war. It doesn't quite trumpet that directly but it's an easy inference. Some amazing personal stories of endurance, perseverance, and flexibility. The diaspora...more

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May 30, 2011 Losososdiane rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This book is both well-researched and well-presented. It covers a topic that has been mostly missing in American history: the fate of those who remained loyal to the British Empire during the Revolutionary War. I am ashamed to say that I had never given any thought to what happened at the conclusion of the war to these people. The author documents how the British king and parliament dealt with evacuating 30,000 people from New York City alone. This city was now hostile territory and the Loyalist...more

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Apr 22, 2013 Catherine Thompson rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: historical, non-fiction

Jasanoff's book is a study of the loyalist diaspora following the American Revolution, and especially an examination of the "spirit of 1783" (as opposed to the "spirit of 1776", one presumes). Those inhabitants of the thirteen colonies who remained loyal to the crown fled to other parts of the British Empire, most especially to British North America (what would become Canada), but also to the West Indies (Jamaica and Bahamas), Britain itself, and a few to Australia and India. As a Canadian and a...more

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Sep 28, 2011 Jenny Brown rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Very well researched, but far more than I really wanted to know about its subject. The same points were made over and over as the author presented what events could be documented. The focus on a few individuals who are used to lead into more generic descriptions of what happened in various locales didn't quite work for me because the characters never came to life as portrayed.

I'd say this is one that is essential reading for graduate students of American History (and I've been one of those, so I...more

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May 10, 2013 Eddy Allen rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: arts-and-historical

On November 25, 1783, the last British troops pulled out of New York City, bringing the American Revolution to an end. Patriots celebrated their departure and the confirmation of U.S. independence. But for tens of thousands of American loyalists, the British evacuation spelled worry, not jubilation. What would happen to them in the new United States? Would they and their families be safe? Facing grave doubts about their futures, some sixty thousand loyalists—one in forty members of the American...more On November 25, 1783, the last British troops pulled out of New York City, bringing the American Revolution to an end. Patriots celebrated their departure and the confirmation of U.S. independence. But for tens of thousands of American loyalists, the British evacuation spelled worry, not jubilation. What would happen to them in the new United States? Would they and their families be safe? Facing grave doubts about their futures, some sixty thousand loyalists—one in forty members of the American population—decided to leave their homes and become refugees elsewhere in the British Empire. They sailed for Britain, for Canada, for Jamaica, and for the Bahamas; some ventured as far as Sierra Leone and India. Wherever they went, the voyage out of America was a fresh beginning, and it carried them into a dynamic if uncertain new world.

A groundbreaking history of the revolutionary era, Liberty’s Exiles tells the story of this remarkable global diaspora. Through painstaking archival research and vivid storytelling, award-winning historian Maya Jasanoff re-creates the journeys of ordinary individuals whose lives were overturned by extraordinary events. She tells of refugees like Elizabeth Johnston, a young mother from Georgia, who spent nearly thirty years as a migrant, searching for a home in Britain, Jamaica, and Canada. And of David George, a black preacher born into slavery, who found freedom and faith in the British Empire, and eventually led his followers to seek a new Jerusalem in Sierra Leone. Mohawk leader Joseph Brant resettled his people under British protection in Ontario, while the adventurer William Augustus Bowles tried to shape a loyalist Creek state in Florida. For all these people and more, it was the British Empire—not the United States—that held the promise of “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.” Yet as they dispersed across the empire, the loyalists also carried things from their former homes, revealing an enduring American influence on the wider British world.

Ambitious, original, and personality-filled, Liberty’s Exiles is at once an intimate narrative history and a provocative new analysis—a book that explores an unknown dimension of America’s founding to illuminate the meanings of liberty itself.
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Apr 09, 2013 Cathi rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: reviewed-professionally, adult-fare

Maya Jasanoff. Liberty’s Exiles. Narrated by L.J. Ganser. 14 CDs. 16 hours. Recorded Books, LLC. 2012. 978-1-4640-4599-8
The historian Maya Jasanoff has the scholar’s perspective to use primary sources to tell the story of Americans who were not among those seeking independence from the British Empire in the Revolution of 1776. In Liberty’s Exiles, she employs the craft of the storyteller and the perspective of the historical thinker in a narrative of true life characters who represent a fascinat...more Maya Jasanoff. Liberty’s Exiles. Narrated by L.J. Ganser. 14 CDs. 16 hours. Recorded Books, LLC. 2012. 978-1-4640-4599-8
The historian Maya Jasanoff has the scholar’s perspective to use primary sources to tell the story of Americans who were not among those seeking independence from the British Empire in the Revolution of 1776. In Liberty’s Exiles, she employs the craft of the storyteller and the perspective of the historical thinker in a narrative of true life characters who represent a fascinating variety of people whose lives were drastically changed by a war in which they were ‘losers.’ We have heard of some of these people before: Joseph Brant, the Mohawk Indian, and William Franklin, who as a Loyalist opposed his father Benjamin Franklin. But here we learn their stories from the humanistic panorama offered by the evidentiary documents of their existence, rather than as enemies of American independence. Besides Brant and Franklin, we read the stories of blacks, both free and enslaved, and other men, with property and political or military careers, as well as the women and children of those families. Individuals are authentically featured in the interwoven web of the Loyalist Diaspora that Jasanoff presents. The story ranges from Britain to Nova Scotia, from New Brunswick to the Bahamas, from Jamaica to Kingston, Ontario, and from Sierra Leone to India. We learn in with documents and the author’s narrative the ways life went on outside of the original 13 colonies with all the messy complexity of historical reality. The author presents in accessible substance a perspective little explored, and for this has justifiably received the 2012 National Book Critics Circle Award for Non-Fiction, the George Washington Book Prize.
Narrator L.J. Ganser energetically reads Jasanoff’s work, making an effort to give voice to all primary source authors that are included in this accounting. It is a shame that the producer of this work didn't see fit to find a woman narrator, and give the primary source authors to different readers if they really wanted to protray author's voice. Those who sollect recorded nonfiction history may want this title, but they will also want the print copy with its many maps, plates of primary sources, footnotes and printed primary source references.
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Jan 21, 2012 John rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I am giving this five stars because if somebody said to me, "Hey, I don't know anything about the Loyalists. What was the deal with those people? What happened to them?" I would say "You know what book you should read? Liberty's Exiles by Maya Jasanoff." And it isn't just that it's comprehensive, it is also very readable and structured in a good way. Jasanoff breaks things down by chapters nicely, so you cover the loyalists who went to Jamaica in one chapter, and then the Bahamas, then Quebec, e...more

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Apr 04, 2012 Jason Dikes rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

60,000 Loyalists left the United States after the American Revolution for other parts of the British Empire: Bahamas, Jamaica, Canada, England, even the West Indies. This book traces the hardships as they adjusted to new worlds. It also shows how they brought their political sensibilities to these new areas. just because they were Loyalists didn't mean that they were not afraid to use the tools of the Revolution--petitions, meetings--to try and change their place in the Empire.

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Jan 20, 2013 Lisa rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: history, non-fiction

History books often make wars sound so nice and neat. There was a cause, there was a war, and then it was over. Nowhere is this tendency more evident than in many treatments of the American Revolution. Many history books entirely overlook the messy aftermath of the war, when the official fighting was over but the diplomatic wrangling dragged on for several years. I have rarely encountered any that mention the fate of the 'losing side'- the American loyalists who found themselves in a country tha...more

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Jun 02, 2011 Jason Walker rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

It struck me that growing up I thought that everyone who sided with Britain in the Revolutionary War went to Canada and somehow that made sense to me. The truth couldn't be further from that. Loyalists went anywhere they wanted in the enormous empire. This book includes collections of some very interesting and amazing stories about people that just didn't get the republican experiment.

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Sep 05, 2012 David R. rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Jasanoff does a wonderful job telling the story of loyalist expatriates following the American Revolution. She decided to focus on a handful of representative persons and families and follows them to the major destinations of Nova Scotia/New Brunswick, the Bahamas, Jamaica, Florida, Sierra Leone, and England -- a technique that provides marvelous storytelling with a minimum of fuss. What's fascinating is how poorly the British Empire ended up managing their loyal American brethren and native Ame...more

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Nov 25, 2011 Jane Walker rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: history

I wanted to read this (even got the library to buy it for me!) because I have a special interest in the American War of Independence. The book didn't help my research, but it was nonetheless fascinating. Jasanoff writes straightforwardly and engagingly, and brought this whole period to life.

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Mar 11, 2012 !Tæmbuŝu marked it as to-read · review of another edition

Shelves: ebook-available, history, social-cultural

KOBOBOOKS

Reviewed by The Guardian (11 Mar 2012)

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Jun 26, 2012 Ann Eignor rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Well researched but quite readable. The two things don't always go together. An aspect of early American history we don't often hear about. First chapter about the war is a little slow but tells. a lot about the civil war going on inside the American Revolution.

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Aug 02, 2011 Jean Kelly rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Truly interesting book about something I don't remember learning in school - the fate of all those who were loyal to Britain in 1783 - including Benjamin Franklin's son. It goes into great detail and her writing makes these folks come alive.

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Apr 14, 2013 Tanya rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: unfinished, non-fiction

I enjoyed reading this book to learn more about my Canadian, Loyalist ancestors and the history behind the novel "Someone knows my name." It helped me in my quest to understand more about Ontario history.

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Jan 14, 2013 John Daly rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Jasanoff pulled together information from emigrants who went to many other countries. I found perhaps too much from the letters of these people for my taste, and not enough statistics that I found credible.

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Jun 12, 2011 Patricrk patrick rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: history

A part of the revolutionary aftermath that I didn't know about. Interesting reading especially how "american" attitudes went with the loyalists and continued to give English governors problems.

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Feb 06, 2013 J. rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Excellent book fun read. Comprehensively covers the revolutionary war period from a loyalist perspective. Very readable and enjoyable book.

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Jan 08, 2013 Thomas Kidd rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

My review of Liberty's Exiles, at Books and Culture: http://www.booksandculture.com/articl...

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About Maya Jasanoff

Maya Jasanoff’s teaching and research focus on the history of modern Britain and the British Empire, particularly in the 18th and 19th centuries. Her first book, Edge of Empire: Lives, Culture, and Conquest in the East, 1750-1850, investigates British expansion in India and Egypt through the lives of art collectors. It was awarded the 2005 Duff Cooper Prize and was a book of the year selection in...more

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